Under the Streets of Turin

By J.R. Brandstrader

Mark Twain thought the citizens of Turin used land so lavishly that he wondered whether they had to pay taxes: “The streets are extravagantly wide, the paved squares are prodigious, the houses are huge. ” That’s just above ground.

Turin, one-time capital of Italy and its fourth largest city, is known for slow food, Fiat, a fabulous Egyptian museum, vast piazzas, elegant porticoes, and Bicerin, a coffee layered with dark chocolate and milk, invented by Caffe Al Bicerin, which opened its doors in 1763. Turin also is the home of Vermouth and a birthplace of Italian filmmaking. The humanist Erasmus lived there and so did the mystic Nostradamus.

But one of its wonders can’t be seen. We aren’t referring to the Shroud of Turin, which believers revere as the cloth that once held the crucified Body of Christ. That’s packed away for special occasions.

The Turinese used underground tunnels to fight invaders. Credit: Somewhere

We are talking about Turin’s vast underground net of tunnels, which hold dungeons, alchemist’s caves, crypts, escape routes, ice cellars and more. We don’t know if Twain ever went downstairs but you should. We stepped into the night with Somewhere , an Italian tour group, to explore Turin’s spooky subterranean passages. The tour cost us $37.44 per person through Viator Tours.

It’s useful to remember that Turin’s strategic location in the foothills of the Alps led to repeated invasions. As the Celtic Taurasia, it was leveled by Hannibal, and as the Roman Castra Taurinorum, it was a military camp destroyed in the civil wars that followed the death of Nero. Eventually, the Burgundians, Lombardians, and the Franks, (led by Charlemagne), and the French (led by Napoleon) would all come knocking.

So it is little wonder that the Turinese eventually became masters of defense. What is amazing is that they did much of their defending from underground. A model of the old citadel, from around the 16th century, allowed us to see what a hostile soldier would have seen while approaching the city during the Seige of Turin: Nothing.

Our guide insisted we sign a liability waiver when embarking on this tour from Piazza Vittorio Veneto. The reason soon became obvious. As the night wore on, it was prudent to watch your head and your step. This three-hour excursion is not for those who have trouble walking, suffer from claustrophobia, or are prone to night terrors.

Armed with flashlights, we passed through a plain door and a stunning interior courtyard, to descend into a cellar. This is just one of many clandestine entrances to a vast system of tunnels created by thousands of men, women, and children who were desperate to save themselves from the invading French and Spanish in 1706.

In the cold of winter, they built listening posts, created trap doors, a ventilation system, and dug mine (subterranean passages under the enemy) and countermine galleries. Children stuffed the galleries with gun powder. Even the stairs that connect the double-layered labyrinth were engineered to foil the uninitiated. Although the wooden edges of the stairs are straight, so that barrels can slide down them, in a pinch the timber can be removed to create a flight of uneven treads that can leave you with a broken neck.

The Turinese designed the underground fortress to detect advancing soldiers through tiny holes; they had the double purpose of transmitting sticks of dynamite, that could be shot up at the unsuspecting armies overhead. If that didn’t stop the invaders, they could explode the gun-powdered filled galleries, swallowing up whole regimens in the ensuing collapse.

The most famous example of this was the heroic act by Pietro Micca during the War of Spanish Succession in 1706. Just when it seemed that the French would succeed in breaking into the citadel, the young soldier helped end the four-month siege by lighting a bomb that would kill him and the French who were trying to axe down the door to the mines. There is a museum dedicated to the young soldier.

But subterranean Turin is only half barracks. Our journey went on to the Royal ice depots of Porta Palazzo. The ice cellars, first built by the Romans, are cone shaped, because that shape best resists dirt. But they’re also made of brick, so that air can pass through the walls. For centuries, whole families would travel up to the Alps for ice and bring it down to the storage cellars in Turin. We were bemused to learn the Mercato di Porta Palazzo, extremely popular for its inexpensive fruits and vegetables, sits above the giant pit where generations of Turinese toiled in the dark, preparing chilled food for the royal families above ground.

Turin is known as the city of magic in part because it is built on the 45th parallel where the Po and the Dora Rivers meet. Occultists claim this is where magic triangles meet. The Gates of Hell are supposed to be under a manhole cover in Piazza Statuto, while the Gateway to Infinity can be found at La Fontana Angelica on Piazza Solferino. Piazza Castello, the heart of Turin, is the source of positive energy, we were told. Some say the gate of Palazzo Reale, which contains the Chapel of the Holy Shroud, divides the city of saints from the city of devils.

Strangely, the Turinese abandoned their tunnels until they found them useful to protect citizens from a different sort of hell. These were the air-raid shelters where homeboy author Primo Levi hid with his sister, secretly cheering on the Allied attacks in hopes it would speed the liberation of the Jews from Hitler and Mussolini.

Turin is, in short, a complex city of secrets. If you visit, don’t just look up at the church spires. There’s also plenty to see underfoot.

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